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Creating an Error Log: Verifying the Log Exists

This is day 2 of how to create an error log.

For those of you who have taken one of my PowerShell classes over the years, you know that I like to address all of the issues of a problem.  Our first issue is “does the error log exists?”  If we are going to append to if, we need to make sure that it is already present.  The function below can be added to your code to verify that the log exists.  If not, then it will create the log.  One thing to take note of, this code does note address error logs stored on a remote system.  This is only tested for error logs stored on the local system.

Function Test-ErrorLog
{
[CmdletBinding()]
Param (
    [parameter(Mandatory=$true)]
    [String]
    $Path,

    [parameter(Mandatory=$true)]
    [String]
    $Name
    )

    # Test the path.
    If (!(Test-Path -Path $Path))
    {
        Write-Verbose "Creating the directory $Path"
        New-Item -Path $Path -ItemType Directory
    }

    # Test the file
    If (!(Test-Path -Path "$Path\$Name"))
    {
        Write-Verbose "Creating the file $Name"
        New-Item -Path "$Path\$Name" -ItemType File
    }

<#
.SYNOPSIS
Verifies the existence of an your error log.

.DESCRIPTION
Verifies the existence of an your error log. If no error log is present,
then the file is created.

.PARAMETER Path
The directory location of the error log.

.PARAMETER Name
The name of the error log.

.EXAMPLE
Test-ErrorLog -Path c:\ps\error -Name Error.csv

.NOTES
===============================================================================
== Function: Test-ErrorLog                                                   ==
== Author: Jason A. Yoder                                                    ==
== Company: MCTExpert of Arizona                                             ==
== Date: October 2, 2016                                                     ==
== Copyright: All rights reserved.                                           ==
== Version: 1.0.0.0                                                          ==
== Legal: The user assumes all responsibility and liability for the usage of ==
== this PowerShell code.  MCTExpert of Arizona, Its officers, shareholders,  ==
== owners, and their relatives are not liable for any damages.  As with all  ==
== code, review it and understand it prior to usage.  It is recommended that ==
== this code be fully tested and validated in a test environment prior to    ==
== usage in a production environment.                                        ==
==                                                                           ==
== Does this code make changes: NO                                           ==
===============================================================================
#>

} # END: Function Test-ErrorLog



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